


bad with my hands (so i watched it set on fire)

by malignance



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Dark Josie, F/M, josie/sebastian but only KIND OF like maybe a hint ... its not the main focus at all jsyk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23000002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malignance/pseuds/malignance
Summary: "You have to become a monster," He'd said, voice light and airy, "like me."So she breaks.
Relationships: Josie Saltzman/Sebastian
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	1. start.

Sometimes, Josie hears thunder in her head.

Days where there's sun and wide open spaces and laughter drifting in from down the hall, it's quiet. Days when it rains and she's running for her life and someone's shouting her name so desperately, it's _loud_.

But it's never, never as loud as when her heart breaks.

( _And her heart has been broken oh so many times._ )

*

There's something about Landon, something quaint about him.

Josie never hears anything other than the sound of his voice when they're together.

Even being with Lizzie is more silence than anything else.

Josie starts to think this might be what peace feels like.

And then the other shoe drops.

(Hope appears, along with the sounds of strong, rushing winds.)

*

When she had given her heart to Landon, it had never been properly whole to begin with. 

But when he hands it back, it is shattered, each piece too small for her to even know where to begin putting it back together.

He looks at her like he's sorry, like he's in love with someone else.

She takes the ashes of her heart back with understanding and a small, sad smile.

(There is a storm raging in her ears, and it takes everything in her not to let it consume.)

*

But even still, even after she has tried for so long, so hard, to keep everything together, _it all falls apart anyway_.

*

The prison world is a blur of bargaining and fear.

She dances along to Kai's tune, all the while trying to prevent lightning from striking.

She tries with all her might and yet, it is never enough.

"You have to become a monster," He'd said, voice light and airy, " _like me._ "

So she breaks.

(The sand clock shatters but all Josie hears is silence.)

*

There's something beautiful about being a monster, she discovers.

Alaric looks at her as if he doesn't recognise her anymore.

Lizzie shakes and screams and cries.

And yet, her head is quiet. Her thoughts are clear.

"This darkness is unbecoming of you, Josette."

Josie turns.

Sebastian's eyes, that have never ever really looked at her, are burning a flame so bright, it almost takes her breath away.

This anger might've scared her before, but instead she is now entranced, taken by the strength and power she can see in them.

"No need to get so dramatic with the overprotective boyfriend bit, Sebastian. Lizzie's fine."

She answers quick, with a smile that she knows does nothing to placate his mood.

Of course, Sebastian knows better than to believe her.

"For now, yes. You can hardly expect me to believe it'll stay that way, not when it's clear you've become rather fond of all this... black magic business."

Josie's tempted to get mad, to ask him if he knows what it's like to finally have a head clear of static and noise and finally be able to breathe for the first time knowing there are no storm clouds hanging overhead. 

But she feels, somehow, if she lets her feelings be known, she'll have lost the game already.

"I'm not going to make you any promises, but Lizzie is as much my sister as she is your girlfriend. Remember that."

*

And then, because she is Josie, and she is not Josie if not sacrificial, she lets it go.

(She lets the thunder back in.)

The prison world crumbles, folding in on itself until it is nothing anymore.

Josie wakes up with a storm between her ears.

Everything is as it should be.

(But God, if that isn't painful, if that isn't _exhausting_.)

*

"Why did you bring me back?" Sebastian asks, a hint of caution in his tone.

Josie is tired. Her thoughts rattle around in her skull and she is just _miserable._ She does not have the time to deal with whatever this is.

"Diego was the anchor. He was always meant to be the anchor. I had a chance to bring everyone back, so I took it. I wasn't going to let you die if I could help it. If you thought I brought you back for any reason other than that, then I'm sorry to disappoint."

She turns to leave, but he stops her with a hand on her wrist.

(The thunder rolls in, fast and unforgiving.)

"Thank you."

Josie's fingers are clenched together tight. She wishes she could say _you're welcome._

*

The thunder doesn't settle like it used to. Josie is no longer able to just let it nestle somewhere in the back of her mind and continue with her day like normal.

Those few hours she had spent in silence, clear headed for the first time in years, they had spoiled her.

Now the thunder is as poisonous as it was when she was a child, its darkness pressing so tightly against her throat. 

"Well well, if it isn't darling little Josie. What brings you to the big bad wolf?"

Kai is somehow still able to retain his usual air of arrogance and playful aggression, despite being held down by chains and tied to a pillar.

Josie knows this is a bad idea. Had known when she'd first set foot in here, but she has no answers, no one but _him._

"You were a twin, too, right? So I thought if anyone would know about this, it would be you..."

She starts, but has no idea how to finish, no idea how to even begin verbalising what she feels to him, what goes on in her head.

He, however, doesn't need the words to pick up on exactly what she means to say.

"Oh poor little Josie, is all that _noise_ bothering you?"

A chill creeps up Josie's spine at the look he gives her.

"So you... you've felt this before, too? What does it mean? How do I stop it?"

Kai laughs, loud and forceful, with an edge that Josie recognises means nothing good.

"Congratulations, it means you're the stronger twin. And the only way to shut it up? Is to complete the merge, and _kill_ your dear old sister."

Josie feels nothing but anger at his revelation.

She is tired, and fed up, and _done._

"But there are other ways, aren't there?"

Kai grins, feral and every bit as dangerous as she knows he is.

"Other ways, yes. Dark ways, _yes_."

(The storm howls, ringing in her ears _._ )

*

(The choice is easy, from there.

Kai scared her. But Kai was also bound, and stuck.

Josie holds onto his arm, tight, and when he parts his mouth to ask _why,_ she feasts.

His magic (which might never have been his to begin with), is hers now.

Kai jerks forward, face twisted up like he's angry but also like he'd half expected this.

Then, Josie whispers, like a secret, _"Ignalusa."_ and this, Kai had not counted on at all.

She counts to three in her head, and then she purses her lips, and she blows.)

*

If power was what it took to calm the storm, she would take all the power she needed.


	2. finish.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She doesn't hear the thunder anymore, she's become it.

Josie has learnt that being a siphoner means you're always hungry, always ready to eat.

All she has to do is think about that hunger and she can suck the magic out of anything (and everything).

She'd once wondered what would happen if she ate up _all_ the magic that the world had to offer.

*

"Kai's gone." Alaric announces, face grim and solemn.

Hope stiffens. "What? But how? The chains-"

"I don't know." Alaric's anger is loud, and obvious, colouring his every word. "When I went to check he just, wasn't there anymore, like he vanished into thin air."

Josie wonders if Alaric could ever guess that she'd killed him. That she'd rendered him into a pile of ashes. That if he looked hard enough he'd find those remnants of him scattered around the soil.

"I'm glad he's gone." Josie says, because she knows everyone else is thinking it.

Alaric however, doesn't give himself the time to be relieved. "We don't know if that's for good."

( _Except, she does._ )

*

Josie is brimming with magic, more magic than she's ever held in her before.

It doesn't silence the thunder completely, but gives her pockets of quiet, an hour or two sometimes.

It's better, but, it's not _gone._

"There's something different about you." Sebastian chimes in, cutting through Josie's thoughts without a care.

Josie knows he's as infatuated with Lizzie as Lizzie is with him. She doesn't understand why he goes out of his way to talk to her sometimes (watch her sometimes too).

"I'm not sure you knew me well enough before to make that kind of observation." Josie replies, lips set in a thin line.

 _Go away,_ her eyes say.

Sebastian grins. "I think I'm only able to make this observation _because_ I don't know you, Josette."

(The thunder sweeps in again, harsh and grating.)

"Okay, so, what's different about me then?" Josie asks, huffing slightly as she does so.

She doesn't have a problem with Sebastian, not really.

It's just-

"You have this odd calm about you. You were so frantic before, nervous. Now you seem more settled, like you've finally pieced something important together."

_It's just-_

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Sebastian hums thoughtfully, his gaze heavy and pressing. "I can't say for certain that it's a _good_ change, but it's a nice colour on you."

(It's just that she's interested, and _that,_ is definitely a problem.)

*

_"If you've come to seek me out, little Josie, it must mean something's wrong."_

_Strange. How the wind speaks with a dead man's voice._

_"I feel like all that noise... all that thunder... it was driving me to something. And I don't want to be lead anywhere, anymore. I just want to be free of it all. I'm tired of being pushed places. I want my own control back."_

_The breeze laughs, at her, for her. It is a pained laughter._

_"You know what you have to do."_

_She does._

_She does._

_She does, but-_

_"Tell me."_

_Everything washes out into white. It is blinding and it stings, and yet she is unsure if her eyes are really open._

_"You let the darkness in. You colour it all black. You know this."_

_She does, but, she is scared._

*

In the silence she has earned herself, she tries to listen for her heart.

Sometimes, she thinks she can hear it loud and clear, beating a rhythm familiar and comforting.

Other times, she doesn't think there's anything there anymore, nothing in her chest but blood and bone.

(Days when she searches and finds nothing, she wonders if maybe she was always meant to become someone like this.)

*

Josie is a fountain overflowing with magic.

Someone notices.

"Josie." Hope's grip on Josie's arm is tight, unyielding.

Josie refuses to flinch. "Yes?"

Hope is frightful like this, in truth. All righteousness and strength.

"I know something's up with you, and I'm worried. There's something off with your magic, I can feel it." 

Her eyes are clear, staring straight at Josie, almost looking through her.

(There's distant rumbling, and it approaches ever so slowly.)

This is a dance Josie doesn't want to take part in. 

"I'm fine. My magic is just... readjusting a little after the sand clock, that's all, you don't need to worry."

Josie smiles for a few seconds, then attempts to flee.

"Josie, you have to tell me what's going on."

Hope grips her arm even tighter.

It is a mistake _._

(The thunder crashes and it is _deafening_.)

Josie's eyes flash, her control slipping through the cracks of her fingers.

"I don't have to explain myself to you." She spits, venom lacing every single word.

Hope opens her mouth like she's about to argue, when Sebastian suddenly steps in-between them.

"Is this really the time or place for this kind of conversation? Why not save this particular chat for another time, hm? And preferably somewhere that's not in the middle of a hallway?"

Josie puts as much distance between her and Hope while Hope's distracted, breathing deep to try and calm the storm wreaking havoc in her head.

Hope frowns, but thankfully walks away without another word.

"So," Sebastian starts, smiling at her with that look in his eyes she can never seem to place, "had a little spat, did we?"

(Lightning too, now.)

"I don't have the time for this. Save your shitty little grins for someone else." She snaps, her last thread of patience completely gone.

Sebastian hears the warning in her voice, and still, stays smiling. "Come now, what's got you in such a sour mood? Might help to talk about it, you know."

(All she can hear is the claps of thunder. All she can feel is the wind ghosting over her skin.)

"It'll be faster if I just show you."

Before he can properly register those words, she's grabbing onto his shoulder.

Then, his thoughts are suddenly overtaken by the unbearable sounds of a storm, the rain echoing and bouncing around in his skull, the thunder coming down and rattling him over and over again. He stumbles, too shocked by the onslaught of sudden noise to focus on keeping himself on his feet, but as soon as he falls away from her grip, he hears nothing but silence.

"What did you-"

"-Try living with that for sixteen years, and then tell me your mood wouldn't be a little _sour_ too."

Sebastian looks at her in disbelief, like he can't quite believe she'd managed to last that long without going out of her mind.

"Is there no way to get rid of that?" He asks, voice soft.

He pities her?

Josie almost wants to laugh.

"I'm working on it."

*

All roads, of course, lead to: black magic.

Josie has let it in once before, the door is already pushed open half way.

She kicks it open this time, surrenders herself to the dark.

All the black magic, it _sings,_ it becomes her blood.

(She doesn't hear the thunder anymore, she's become it.)

*

Josie remembers what it feels like to laugh, to feel lighter than air.

(It's funny, she realises, that the darkness had been the one to grant her that.)

But it doesn't matter, to everybody else, that she's finally, finally at ease now. It only matters that she'd used black magic to attain it.

Alaric looks at her like he's grieving. "Why, Josie?"

Josie doesn't want to explain herself anymore.

"Are you going to try and kill me, dad?"

His mouth parts and she can almost hear the _yes,_ but it doesn't come. She spells him into a deep sleep before he can even form the first syllable.

"I was quite worried for you, I must admit."

Sebastian emerges, surprising and unexpected as usual, saying things she wishes he wouldn't say.

Josie frowns. "Why?"

He shrugs, as if he was unclear himself. "At first I thought it to be because I owed you a debt, for bringing me back and not leaving me to die. But then as time passed it just became... something of a fascination, you could say. I found myself intrigued by you, and the thought of any harm coming to you just started to seem... unpleasant."

Josie tenses. "Are you saying you have a crush on me?"

Sebastian's lips quirk into a slight smirk. "... Nothing quite that simple, but, something close."

(Josie has what she wants now. It's only natural she starts working on getting _who_ she wants too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i said it wasnt really gna be josie/sebastian focused but then in the end put in a part where he basically confesses hes into her anyway .... oops

**Author's Note:**

> i just luv exploring dark josie , perhaps u could say, im Obsessed.  
> also if u think josie killing kai is unrealistic don't tell me i don't want to know sklfjg


End file.
